# EAN Code: What It Is, How to Read It and How to Check It > What a product's EAN code is, what its digits mean, how the check digit is calculated, who issues it and how to verify yours before it reaches your feed. URL: https://clione.ai/glossary/ean-code/ Lang: en When someone says a product's "barcode", they almost always mean an EAN: the vertical bars and the numbers beneath them that get scanned at any supermarket checkout. GS1, the organization that maintains the standard, says EAN/UPC codes **are printed on practically every consumer product in the world** and are the oldest and most widely used of all its barcodes.[^gs1-ean-upc] In an online store nothing gets scanned, but the number matters all the same: [Google Merchant Center](/glossary/google-merchant-center/) accepts it as the product identifier, and marketplaces such as Amazon or AliExpress require official EAN codes to sell on them.[^gmc-gtin][^gs1es-ean] ## What it is, exactly First, separate the number from the bars. GS1 Spain explains it this way: **the [GTIN](/glossary/gtin/) is the number that identifies the product, and the EAN is its graphic representation**, the bars and spaces that let a scanner read it.[^gs1es-ean] When a store talks about "its EAN", it almost always means the number, which is a 13-digit GTIN. [Schema.org](/glossary/schema-org/), the vocabulary of [structured data](/glossary/structured-data/), gives the `gtin13` property as equivalent to the EAN UCC-13 and the 13-digit ISBN.[^schema-gtin13] The standard has several versions, each for a size or a market:[^gs1es-ean] - **EAN-13**: the one on any retail product. It has 13 digits and is the one you see every day. - **EAN-8**: for products so small that a 13-digit code would not fit without losing legibility. - **UPC-A**: the equivalent of the EAN-13 in the United States and Canada, and **UPC-E**, its compact version. - **ITF-14**: sometimes called EAN-14, it identifies groupings of products in the warehouse, not on the box. An EAN-13 has four parts, from left to right: the GS1 prefix, the company code, the product code (the reference that tells models, sizes, colors or flavors apart) and the check digit.[^gs1es-ean] ## What the prefix says The first digits say which GS1 organization assigned the company prefix. GS1 Spain sums it up as the country where the code was registered (84, for example, for Spain).[^gs1es-ean] GS1 is more precise: because companies can manufacture anywhere in the world, **prefixes do not identify a product's country of origin**.[^gs1-prefix] Some ranges from its list:[^gs1-prefix] | Prefix | Who assigns it or what it is used for | | ----------- | --------------------------------------------- | | 001 to 019 | GS1 US | | 060 to 139 | GS1 US | | 300 to 379 | GS1 France | | 400 to 440 | GS1 Germany | | 560 | GS1 Portugal | | 750 | GS1 Mexico | | 800 to 839 | GS1 Italy | | 840 to 849 | GS1 Spain | | 952 | Demonstrations and examples of the GS1 system | | 978 and 979 | Books (ISBN) | ## How the check digit is calculated The last digit does not identify anything: it checks that the others were read correctly.[^gs1es-ean] GS1 publishes the method in three steps. Multiply each digit by 3 or by 1, alternating, so that the digit right before the check digit is multiplied by 3; add up the results; and the check digit is whatever the sum lacks to reach the next multiple of ten.[^gs1-check-digit] This is GS1's own example for a GTIN-13:[^gs1-check-digit] ```text Digits: 6 2 9 1 0 4 1 5 0 0 2 1 Multiply by: 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 Result: 6 6 9 3 0 12 1 15 0 0 2 3 Sum: 57 Next multiple of ten: 60. 60 - 57 = 3 Full code: 6291041500213 ``` Try copying one of the digits wrong: if the 5 in the eighth position becomes a 6, that column's result goes from 15 to 18, the sum reaches 60 and the check digit would have to be 0, not 3. **That is why the check digit gives away a miscopied number** before it reaches your catalog. ## How you get one An official EAN comes through the GS1 member organization of your country. In Spain, for example, that is GS1 Spain (AECOC), which describes the process in three steps: sign up, receive an exclusive GS1 company prefix to generate each product's code, and register those products' data on its platform, AECOC ACTIVATE.[^gs1es-ean] **To sell in large retail chains or on marketplaces it is a commercial requirement**, and each variant (another color, another size) has to carry its own code.[^gs1es-ean] ## In a store **Fictitious example.** A store sells a stoneware mug in two colors. Each color is a different product and carries its own code; both numbers use prefix 952, which GS1 reserves for examples, and have a valid check digit.[^gs1-prefix] The same number has to appear identically everywhere the product lives:[^gmc-gtin][^schema-gtin13] | Where | Blue mug | White mug | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | ------------- | | The label, under the bars | 9520000123451 | 9520000123468 | | The barcode field in the store admin | 9520000123451 | 9520000123468 | | The `gtin` attribute in the Merchant Center _feed_ | 9520000123451 | 9520000123468 | | The `gtin13` property in the [product page](/glossary/product-page/)'s [JSON-LD](/glossary/json-ld/) | 9520000123451 | 9520000123468 | The same EAN on both mugs would be a mistake: Google reminds you that **each product and each color or size variant has its own GTIN**.[^gmc-gtin] [Product variants](/glossary/product-variants/) share a model, but not a code. Reading the prefix as the country of manufacture. An EAN that starts with 84 was registered with GS1 Spain, but the product can be made anywhere else: GS1 says its prefixes **do not identify the country of origin** of a product, because the companies that use them can manufacture anywhere in the world.[^gs1-prefix] ## How to check it 1. **Count the digits.** An EAN-13 has 13. If it has 12, it is a North American UPC: Schema.org says it is converted into a 13-digit code by adding a zero in front.[^schema-gtin13] 2. **Calculate the check digit** with the method above. Google asks you to check that it is present and correct with GS1's calculator.[^gmc-gtin] 3. **Look the number up in Verified by GS1**, GS1's service for looking up and verifying the information of any barcode (GTIN, UPC or EAN).[^gs1-verified] 4. **Look at the prefix.** Google does not accept those that start with 02, 04 or 2, restricted-circulation ranges, or with 05, 98 or 99, reserved for coupons.[^gmc-gtin] 5. **Compare the number in the _feed_ with the one on the product page and the one on the label**, variant by variant. If you are not sure about a code, Google asks you not to submit it rather than guess it.[^gmc-gtin] ## Related concept: GTIN EAN and GTIN get used as synonyms, and GS1 Spain acknowledges they get confused because they look so much alike. The difference is the one from before: **the GTIN is the number and the EAN is the bars that represent it**.[^gs1es-ean] The GTIN is also a broader family than the EAN, with formats for North America and for logistics, and it has its [own entry](/glossary/gtin/). And the other reference the manufacturer sets, the one from its own catalog, is not an EAN either: it is the [MPN](/glossary/mpn/). To keep going, the [structured data reading path](/learn/structured-data/) orders the rest of the terms a product page uses to say what product it sells.